Centre drinking ban magnified problem on streets say police

A BAN on street drinking in Barnsley town centre which came into force almost two years ago has in fact “magnified” the problem, a new report reveals.

In December 2008, a Designated Public Place Order (DPPO) was introduced in a number of streets around the town centre and cemetery, giving police officers the power to confiscate alcohol from drunks and force them to move on.

However, according to a police report which is set to go before Barnsley Council members next week, the order only moved street drinkers to a new spot a five-minute walk away.

The report says: “The order has indeed cleared the town’s drunks from the centre of Barnsley. However, it has displaced the problem onto the Town End area and indeed magnified it.

“Whilst members of the public will tolerate drunks in the shopping areas or whilst walking into the town centre, they are not so tolerant of gatherings at the end of the street where they live, if this is persistent.”

As a result, Pc Jane Rees and Mark Miller, from Barnsley’s safer neighbourhood team have asked the council to introduce a new DPPO covering the affected streets in Town End and Kingstone.

This is set to be agreed at a meeting of Barnsley Council’s licensing board on Wednesday, October 27.

The report written by the team, which is set to go before that meeting, says that the introduction of the DPPO in the town centre was a “very useful tool” which meant that officers “robustly policed their patch with renewed vigour.”

However, it adds: “It did not take long for these people to realise that they would have to find other locations in which to indulge their drinking habit.

“To remain in the town centre and risk having their alcohol confiscated on a daily basis was not a viable option for them.

“Hence, this group quickly established where the parameters of the order area were and promptly started to gather just outside it.

“Currently, the preferred area is the garage site at the bottom of Blenheim Avenue.

“This appears to be favoured because it is less than five minutes’ walk from their original haunts and they are relatively tucked away from police and public view.

“Most importantly, this location is only 100 yards from a source of cheap white cider, in the form of Rhythm and Booze on Racecommon Road.”

Due to “numerous complaints” from locals, officers from the safer neighbourhood team have already worked with the Rhythm and Booze off-licence to ask staff to stop selling alcohol to the “nuisance group” and have also been carrying out “high-visibility patrols” of the area to reassure residents.

However, officers say these measures are “merely a coping strategy” and “not providing a long-term solution to the problem.”

The safer neighbourhood team says that the new DPPO would “greatly assist the police to combat the continuing nuisance and anti-social behaviour in the area, much of which can be directly linked to drinking in the street.”

The report adds: “The ability for officers to deal positively with those who choose to drink and cause nuisance in a public area would greatly assist our battle with anti-social behaviour and go some way towards improving the quality of life for local people.”

If introduced, the DPPO in Town End and Kingstone would be the third such order in Barnsley.

In addition to the town centre order implemented in December 2008, another order was brought in in December 2009 covering Doncaster Road.

Those caught drinking in an area covered by such orders, and who refuse to comply with police officers, face a maximum fine of 500.